Environmental education can be entertaining

Who keeps 80 school children enthralled and produces 80 drawings of dolphins of various shapes and sizes? WWF’s dolphin team of course!

In January this year, members of WWF Greater Mekong’s Cambodia Country Programme visited a school north of Kratie, in Cambodia's north-east, to talk to students, aged 12 -13 years old, about dolphin conservation and environmental issues that affect the Mekong River. It was just one of the schools visited over the course of the year as part of the public awareness and education programme of the Cambodian Mekong Dolphin Conservation Project (CMDCP).

Through WWF’s dolphin team, the CMDCP is delivering some important messages to the next generation of Cambodians living along the Mekong River.

On the trip, Vinn Bunna, WWF Cambodia’s Community Awareness Officer, used a newly developed Environmental Awareness Flipchart to stimulate discussion with the students on environmental topics such as water pollution, illegal fishing, and the importance of wetlands.

“The flipchart’s colourful pictures attracted a lot of attention and the students could easily identify villages that had a good and bad environment,” he said.

“However, the dolphin drawing competition generated the most excitement and demonstrated that some of the students were very capable illustrators.”

The community environmental awareness flipchart along with other educational material developed by the WWF Cambodia Country Programme are being used along the Mekong River by the CMDCP to raise awareness and lead to positive changes in the local communities.